"The State of Curating in Hong Kong" at the Goethe-Institut Hongkong.

Para/Site Art Space - Hong Kong Jockey Club Curatorial Training Programme (中文)

This eight-month course (August 2008 to March 2009) will introduce the four participants to the state of today's international contemporary art, enabling them to navigate the art world confidently and realize exciting and high quality exhibitions in the future.

Hong Kong is the main base of the CTP with a focus on the Pearl River Delta and Mainland China. Apart from having a vibrant art scene, Hong Kong is also the commercial center of Asian Contemporary art as major auction houses choose the city as a their base along with important galleries and consultants.. Just around the corner from Para/Site Art Space is the Asia Art Archive – the most comprehensive research centre for contemporary Asian art.The Pearl River Delta is a burgeoning area with plenty to offer in contemporary art, hosting the Guangdong Triennial, Architecture Biennial and the Ink Biennial as well as home for many established artists such as Cao Fei, Zheng Guo Gu and Lin Yi Lin. It is also where important institutions like Macao Museum of Art (Macau), Guangdong Museum of Art (Guangzhou) and He Xiang Ning Art Museum (Shenzhen) are located. Besides Para/Site Art Space there are several other independent art spaces in the region, for example 1A Space, Videotage and the Art Center in Hong Kong, OCAT in Shenzhen ) and our partner institution Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou.

The main goal of the CTP is to use the Pearl River Delta as a case study for the participants to build their own networks, to analyse and understand the structure, artistic environment and the function of different institutions within the region. This knowledge could be extended to better understand the current contemporary art world and to position local art in an international art environment and critical discourse of the current local environment.

The eight-month full-time project will be composed of group seminars, artist meetings, visits and short overseas excursions to museums and galleries. Participants of the project are also required to work extensively on independent research or curatorial projects and participate in Para/Site Art Space's daily operation. At the end of the course, the four participants will produce a major exhibition, which they would develop together in the duration of the programme.

In 2007/08 the participants traveled to the Istanbul Biennial, Lyon Biennial, Venice Biennial and visited art institutions and galleries in the Netherlands and France. During the programme, they have met over 50 local and international art professionals and participated in writing and theory workshops. As a final project, they curated the exhibition ChiE! at Osage Kung Tong and will present an exhibition at the Beijing Art Fair in April.

In 2008/09 the participants will visit some of the most important International Biennials is Asia (Gwangju, Busan, Guangdong, Shanghai and Taipei) and use the Pearl River Delta as a case study to build their own networks, to analyse and understand the structure, artistic environment and the function of different institutions within the region. This knowledge could be extended to better understand the current contemporary art world and to position local art in an international art environment and critical discourse of the current local environment.

PARA/SITE ART SPACE
Para/Site Art Space is Hong Kong's leading visual-arts organization. Its focus is to produce, exhibit and communicate high-quality local and international contemporary art. Founded in 1996, it is the city's first non-profit independent organization that actively supports the professional development of contemporary art and discourses in Hong Kong and overseas. Over the past eleven years, Para/Site Art Space has produced and presented over 100 exhibitions, consisting mainly of solo, thematic and artist-curated exhibitions and participated in the international biennials in Venice and Gwangju. It has also produced numerous catalogues, touring exhibitions, and held a wide range of workshops and seminars. Since 2005 a full time curator, Tobias Berger, directs Para/Site Art Space.

Partner Institutions and Programmes
The course is embedded in an international network of organizations that will actively help in the development, training and communication of the course. The participants of the course will study together with key figures of these institutions and programmes to exchange ideas and experiences regularly.

- De Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam

- Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou

Learn
With the emergence of new models of art spaces and exhibition formats means that the role of a curator is constantly in flux. The course will discuss the how art is being curated under various particular spatial, exhibition frameworks and the different roles an institutional and a freelance curator play in the contemporary art world. The participants will also learn the historical development and concepts in both Chinese and International art. The course will concentrate on International and Chinese Contemporary Art, bridging general concepts, themes and theoretical issues to explore the way we look at art in the context of contemporary society and culture.

Working closely with our partner institutions, overseas curators, art historians and artists would be invited to conduct small group seminars with the participants. Para/Site Art Space has been active in organizing talks and in the past two years, we have organized or co-presented talks with people, among others, Hedwig Fijen, Ute Meta Bauer, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Wolf Herzogenrath, Yilmaz Dziewor, Ruth Noack, Doryun Chong, Noritoshi Hiragawa, Lawrence Weiner, Cao Fei, Paul Chan, Shu Yang together with discussions about curating, the art market and the future of Hong Kong's art spaces.

Curate
The course will concentrate on the curating of contemporary visual art. Besides regular meetings with international curators, it will discuss different methods of curating, the particularities of the various art-institutions along with the challenges of independent curating. The participants will be actively involved in running the program of Para/Site Art Space. During the course they will curate small individual projects and gain hands-on experience in the exhibition making process. At the end of the course, the participants will curate an exhibition project in a large Hong Kong art space and publish a catalogue.

Meet
To build up a network with professionals and learn the different positions of contemporary art world, it is essential to be exposed to a variety of experts in the arts. The aim is it to meet and discuss with a wide range of local and international artists, curators, theorists, gallerists, architects, museum administrators and other art professionals. In these concentrated informal meetings and encounters, the participants will have the chance to make contacts, get first hand knowledge of the art world and gain experiences that will be useful in further developing their professional career.

Travel
The participants will be “on the road” most of the time. They will have a chance to meet professionals in their work environment. This will enable the participants to learn to critically analyze the artistic ecologies in the area, especially in the Pearl River Delta, with its various social, cultural and institutional contexts. An excursion to a major international art event is also planed to give the participants the possibility to see, analyse and learn in a more international context.

Write
Besides active curating, writing is an important conduit to reflect and reach out to the public. Writing and editing are also essential skills needed for exhibition making. The meditation of art is one of the most challenging parts of contemporary art. The participants will be asked to write press releases, curatorial statements, articles and short explanations . The participants would further develop their writing skills in the duration of the course through workshops and group discussions on art criticism and writing with Chinese and English art editors and frequent writing assignments.

Budget
The participants are not only responsible for the budgeting of their own exhibition but will be introduced to budget forecasting, event budgeting and how to successfully write fundraising and sponsorship applications. They are expected to raise additional funds for their final exhibition if necessary.

Fees and Requirements :

Applicants must have a good knowledge of contemporary art;
A university degree or at least three years of art-related experience;
Fluent English, knowledge in both Cantonese and Putonghua

Fee for the entire course including basic travel costs is HKD 30,000. Financial assistance is available. Please enquire for further details.

To apply

Please submit the following in English:
- CV
- Motivation letter
- Names and contact information of two people whom we could contact for references
- Project idea, not longer than two A4 pages
- A list of 10 people you would like to meet
- Writing samples

Application Deadline: 15thJune, 2008
Tuition: (including basic travel costs): HKD 30,000

Introductory Session: 5th April, 2pm at Osage Kwun Tong

Please send your application to:
Para/Site Art Space, G/F, 4 Po Yan Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Out of all the received applications, 6-8 people will be short-listed and interviewed by our panel. 4 participants will then be selected for the eight-month course.

Please direct any further enquiries to Christina Li, christina@para-site.org.hk .

Programme Coordinators

Tobias Berger studied art history and economics at Bochum University and has completed the De Appel Curatorial Training Programme in Amsterdam before working for three years as curator at the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel. In 2002 he was the artistic director of the 8th Baltic Triennial of International Art in Vilnius and from 2003 until 2005, the director of ARTSPACE in Auckland. In 2004 he was the commissioner for the New Zealand participation at the Sao Paulo Bienal. He was also involved in international Biennial projects in Christchurch, Gwangju, Auckland and Busan. Since April 2005 he is the executive director and curator at Para/Site Art Space in Hong Kong. He has curated over 60 projects and has published internationally.

Christina Li graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a degree in Fine Arts and Comparative Literature. She has been working as the Assistant Curator at Para/Site Art Space since 2005 and has worked extensively with artists in the Pearl River Delta region.

Partner Institutions:

De Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam

de Appel is a contemporary Arts Centre, located in the heart of Amsterdam. Over the 25 years of its existence it has been operating on an international level and for 10 years de Appel has been running a renowned Curatorial Training Programme. Initiated in 1994, the course wishes to offer young curators a condensed package of experiences and skills that can be used as tools and instruments during the further development of their professional career.

Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou

Founded by Hu Fang and Zhang Wei, Vitamin Creative Space based in Guangzhou, is the first alternative art space in Pearl River Delta. It dedicates itself to contemporary art-exchange, analysing and combining different forms of contemporary cultures. Other than curating exhibitions in the space, they produce publications and are involved in curating exhibitions at international art fairs and museums such as Liste 06, Frieze Art Fair 2006, Het Domein (Holland) and recently Singapore Bienniale 2006.